The saint of Assisi, who had just arrived from a trip to the Holy Land, celebrated Mass in that place and this is how Greccio became the “new Bethlehem”. Since that Christmas of 1223, the tradition of the manger spread rapidly throughout the whole country. Christianity. Reaching today, as a proof and a sign of the love and joy generated by the birth of Jesus.
According to the Minor Brothers of the Order founded by Saint Francis, that place was consecrated to the Lord and in honor of the man also known as the “poor man of Assisi” an altar and a church were built over the manger.
Today, the Greccio sanctuary can be visited and every year at Christmas a live Nativity scene is staged in memory of what happened 800 years ago.